Focused entirely on domestic automotive components industry, IFCI Venture Capital Funds Ltd is launching a private equity fund in association with German consultancy UBF-B worth €100 million (about Rs 550 crore). The fund managers plan to invest the initial corpus of €100 million in about 30 companies which are at the bottom of the growth curve. “Strong corporate governance is a pre-requisite for the firm to attract investment from outside,” said Mr Rajeev Mukhija, Deputy General Manager, IFCI Venture Capital Funds. The fund, which will have a life of 10 years, is anticipated to have its first closing on March 31, 2008. It will be constituted as two-tier hybrid fund structure with Indian investors contributing in India Domiciled Trust Fund and international investors contributing to Overseas Domiciled Limited Liability Company. “We will base the Overseas Domiciled Limited Liability Company in either Cyprus or Mauritius where foreign investors can enjoy tax benefits. We are targeting €40 million from the overseas investment, while the rest would be from Indian investors,” said Mr Mukhija.   more »

JPMorgan & Chase Co., the third- largest U.S. bank, set up a $2 billion fund focusing on infrastructure investments in India, where spending on roads, ports and power may double over the next five years. The fund will be ready to invest in companies and projects by the end of this year, Anil Bhalla, managing director of the Asian Clients Group at J.P. Morgan Securities Inc., said in an interview in Mumbai yesterday. JPMorgan joins Blackstone Group, Citigroup Inc. and ICICI Bank Ltd. in starting infrastructure funds in India, the world's fastest growing major economy after China. The nation may ease borrowing restrictions to help finance an estimated $500 billion required in public works by 2012, according to Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram.   more »

The Internet search giant Google has invested in the early stage venture capital fund Ventureast TeNet Fund II - a seed-stage fund run by the Tenet Group of IIT, Madras and Ventureast Fund Advisors. The company has also joined the Indian Angel Network, an organization of professionals and companies dedicated to supporting entrepreneurship in India. The Ventureast TeNet II fund invests in technology that enables early stage entrepreneurs to get their businesses off the ground. Emphasis is placed on technologies and solutions focused on small and medium-sized enterprises and bridging the digital divide in India and global markets. The Indian Angel Network brings together entrepreneurs, companies and CEOs from India and around the world to provide money, mentoring and strategic inputs to early stage ventures in multiple sectors.   more »

British investment management group Protego Real Estate Investors LLP said on Thursday it hoped to raise up to $400 million of equity to launch a speculative Indian office development fund. The Protego WIRE Indian Office Development Fund has been designed in joint venture with WIRE Commercial Partners, a unit of Singaporean property services company WIRE Group. The closed-ended, seven-year fund will invest primarily in office development projects in tier one and tier two cities in India. It said it hoped to raise $150 million of seed equity by the end of the fund's first closing in February. Protego is targeting net returns in the region of 25 percent.   more »

Extramarks.com, an online education model that offers ‘after-school’ academic support to students, plans to raise $5-million (around Rs 20 crore) venture capital fund to fuel its growth plans. Promoted by Noida-based international BPO company Cleaveglobal E-Services Limited, the portal is in talks with three venture capital firms and is expected to close a deal soon. According to Atul Kulshrestha, founder-director and chairman of Cleaveglobal, the company intends to utilise these funds to invest in enhancing the existing infrastructure and launching the model in the UK and US in the next six months, besides introducing syllabus for higher education including engineering and curricula of state educational boards. “Our idea is to create a networked community between students, teachers and parents. Students can communicate and interact with their peers across the country, ask questions and answer among themselves, and can even interact with teachers for realtime subject expert guidance,” he said.   more »

TiE will rope in VC funds and angel investors. After witnessing a rush of early-stage venture capital (VC) funds and angel investors into the country, the government is taking steps to float a fund to make available seed capital — the earliest stage of funding a business — to entrepreneurs with innovative ideas. This is part of an effort to have a broad programme to foster innovation and take it to global markets. For this, the government is putting together a framework for setting up an innovation promotion council. The fund’s initial corpus of Rs 75 crore will come from the Ministry of Science and Technology. According to information, the Centre is expected to engage The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), a network of early-stage VC funds and angel investors with associations in the sub-continent, and Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad.   more »

Venture Capital firm 'Sequoia Capital' will invest $500-600 million in Indian companies, for meeting their capital requirements for growth, in the next couple of years. "We will invest money ranging between $500 and $600 million in Indian companies in next couple of years," Sequoia Capital (India), Associate, Ravi Shankar, told PTI here. Sequoia Capital, which mainly invests in young companies having potential to grow, has identified various emerging sectors in the country and would address their needs. "We have found several areas such as internet mobile, specialised retailing, telecom, KPO etc in the country which offer immense potential and we would like to focus on these areas," he added.   more »

Gulf Finance House (GFH) yesterday announced that it has raised more than $630 million from GCC investors to fund the infrastructure development of Energy City in India. This is the most successful equity raising in the investment bank's history and GFH is now looking at further investment opportunities in India. The equity issue was underwritten by Kuwait Investment Company. "The success of the exercise to raise equity for Energy City India underscores the strong appetite of our clients for opportunities in India as well as the success of our Energy City Qatar project," GFH chairman Esam Janahi said. "Sophisticated global investors have been eyeing India for some time and are looking for opportunities to invest in its economic development, particularly after the liberalisation reforms introduced a few years ago.   more »

India-focused real estate investment company Yatra Capital Ltd said it has raised about 120 mln eur gross via a placing of about 11.43 mln new shares at 10.50 eur each. After the offering, Yatra will have about 21.43 mln shares outstanding. Last month, Yatra said it planned to raise 150 mln eur through an equity offering in the Netherlands and private placements and invest the money in various Indian projects. At the time, Yatra said its advisor, K2 Investment Committee, had identified further financing opportunities of 231 mln eur. Since its initial capital raising in Dec 2006, Yatra has committed to investing 88.4 mln eur through ten investments in India.(Forbes)   more »

ICICI Venture Funds Management Ltd, private equity arm of ICICI Bank Ltd, is floating a $2 billion real estate fund next month, reports quoting its chief executive said. The new real estate fund will have a tenure of 10 years and the money will be invested in projects within three years, the report quoted Renuka Ramnath, managing director and chief executive of ICICI Venture, as saying. ICICI Venture manages assets of more than $2 billion and had raised a $550 million real estate fund earlier. It has a strategic long-term joint venture with Tishman Speyer Properties in India.(Domain B)   more »